Luke Billingham
Biographic Data
| ID | 4076241 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Luke Billingham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Luke |
| FAMILY NAME | Billingham |
| SIGNATURE | BILLINGHAM L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Open University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0819-8248 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Triple violence
In this paper, we propose that the idea of ‘triple violence’ can be a fruitful conceptual tool for scholars, policymakers and practitioners concerned with interpersonal physical violence between young people. Building on and adapting previous theoretical analyses of the multi-layered, relational nature of violence, we set out a conceptualisation intended to articulate the dynamic relationship between structural, psychological and interpersonal fo…
It’s a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn’t it?’ the changing space of informal youth football in the UK
It is often remarked that all that is required for children to play football are ‘jumpers for goalposts’. Space is also required, however, and so is permission to play, and to see the game through. Some of the spaces associated with British youth football through history include private school playing fields, villages, back streets, leisure centres, artificial pitches, and concrete sports courts or ‘cages’. This article explores some of these gre…
Interventionitis in the Criminal Justice System
This article highlights the problem it names as ‘interventionitis’; the tendency of policymakers to treat enduring, systemically generated problems with limited interventions that are insufficient or inappropriate for the intended improvement. We outline three typical features of interventionitis; overconfidence in these quick fixes, the iatrogenic effect of unintended harms caused by such interventions, and the focus on surface-level rather than…
(Re)moving exclusions
School exclusion reduction in Scotland—and especially in the city of Glasgow—has received substantial media and policy attention in recent years. In London in particular, multiple governmental agencies have explicitly expressed a desire to replicate the exclusion reduction which recently occurred in Glasgow, often citing the connection between school exclusion and violence as a key motivating factor. In this paper, after presenting the statistica…
Sports Cages as Social Infrastructure
The concept of social infrastructure has experienced a rapid rise to prominence in recent years, both in academia and in policy. In this article, we explore a case study of cages (also known as Multi‐Use Games Areas) in Hackney, North‐East London. We argue that cages are forms of urban infrastructure which can facilitate multiple forms of sociality—especially for young people—and can thus be deemed valuable social infrastructure. However, this va…
You either go on the gang life, or you go on that football life’
In considering the spatialization of race and the racialization of space, this article explores dominant media representations of sports cages in the UK. To date, media interest in these cages, often found on social housing estates, has revolved around the role they have played in the childhoods of a small number of young, almost exclusively Black, footballers, primarily from London. In the first academic article to engage with these issues, we a…
Against Youth Violence
Against Youth Violence
Violence between young people causes untold harm to individuals and communities. In the UK, the way in which ‘youth violence’ is framed by the media and in politics is often unhelpful, inaccurate and counterproductive. We argue that it is more helpful, accurate and constructive to view the problem within the context of other kinds of social harm in young people’s lives. Drawing on a wide range of empirical data, we lay bare numerous and varied fo…
The terrifying abyss of insignificance
The concept of mattering can be helpful for understanding the ways in which structural and historical factors affect individual psychologies. This paper lays out the usefulness of mattering as a lens through which to examine why a small minority of young people in Britain commit violent acts. We first explore what it means to matter and the evidence linking the quest to matter with violence, and then examine the factors in contemporary Britain wh…
You either go on the gang life, or you go on that football life’
In considering the spatialization of race and the racialization of space, this article explores dominant media representations of sports cages in the UK. To date, media interest in these cages, often found on social housing estates, has revolved around the role they have played in the childhoods of a small number of young, almost exclusively Black, footballers, primarily from London. In the first academic article to engage with these issues, we a…
It’s a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn’t it?’ the changing space of informal youth football in the UK
It is often remarked that all that is required for children to play football are ‘jumpers for goalposts’. Space is also required, however, and so is permission to play, and to see the game through. Some of the spaces associated with British youth football through history include private school playing fields, villages, back streets, leisure centres, artificial pitches, and concrete sports courts or ‘cages’. This article explores some of these gre…
(Re)moving exclusions
School exclusion reduction in Scotland—and especially in the city of Glasgow—has received substantial media and policy attention in recent years. In London in particular, multiple governmental agencies have explicitly expressed a desire to replicate the exclusion reduction which recently occurred in Glasgow, often citing the connection between school exclusion and violence as a key motivating factor. In this paper, after presenting the statistica…
Sports Cages as Social Infrastructure
The concept of social infrastructure has experienced a rapid rise to prominence in recent years, both in academia and in policy. In this article, we explore a case study of cages (also known as Multi‐Use Games Areas) in Hackney, North‐East London. We argue that cages are forms of urban infrastructure which can facilitate multiple forms of sociality—especially for young people—and can thus be deemed valuable social infrastructure. However, this va…
The terrifying abyss of insignificance
The concept of mattering can be helpful for understanding the ways in which structural and historical factors affect individual psychologies. This paper lays out the usefulness of mattering as a lens through which to examine why a small minority of young people in Britain commit violent acts. We first explore what it means to matter and the evidence linking the quest to matter with violence, and then examine the factors in contemporary Britain wh…
Against Youth Violence
Against Youth Violence
Violence between young people causes untold harm to individuals and communities. In the UK, the way in which ‘youth violence’ is framed by the media and in politics is often unhelpful, inaccurate and counterproductive. We argue that it is more helpful, accurate and constructive to view the problem within the context of other kinds of social harm in young people’s lives. Drawing on a wide range of empirical data, we lay bare numerous and varied fo…
You either go on the gang life, or you go on that football life’
In considering the spatialization of race and the racialization of space, this article explores dominant media representations of sports cages in the UK. To date, media interest in these cages, often found on social housing estates, has revolved around the role they have played in the childhoods of a small number of young, almost exclusively Black, footballers, primarily from London. In the first academic article to engage with these issues, we a…
(Re)moving exclusions
School exclusion reduction in Scotland—and especially in the city of Glasgow—has received substantial media and policy attention in recent years. In London in particular, multiple governmental agencies have explicitly expressed a desire to replicate the exclusion reduction which recently occurred in Glasgow, often citing the connection between school exclusion and violence as a key motivating factor. In this paper, after presenting the statistica…
Sports Cages as Social Infrastructure
The concept of social infrastructure has experienced a rapid rise to prominence in recent years, both in academia and in policy. In this article, we explore a case study of cages (also known as Multi‐Use Games Areas) in Hackney, North‐East London. We argue that cages are forms of urban infrastructure which can facilitate multiple forms of sociality—especially for young people—and can thus be deemed valuable social infrastructure. However, this va…
It’s a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn’t it?’ the changing space of informal youth football in the UK
It is often remarked that all that is required for children to play football are ‘jumpers for goalposts’. Space is also required, however, and so is permission to play, and to see the game through. Some of the spaces associated with British youth football through history include private school playing fields, villages, back streets, leisure centres, artificial pitches, and concrete sports courts or ‘cages’. This article explores some of these gre…
Interventionitis in the Criminal Justice System
This article highlights the problem it names as ‘interventionitis’; the tendency of policymakers to treat enduring, systemically generated problems with limited interventions that are insufficient or inappropriate for the intended improvement. We outline three typical features of interventionitis; overconfidence in these quick fixes, the iatrogenic effect of unintended harms caused by such interventions, and the focus on surface-level rather than…
Triple violence
In this paper, we propose that the idea of ‘triple violence’ can be a fruitful conceptual tool for scholars, policymakers and practitioners concerned with interpersonal physical violence between young people. Building on and adapting previous theoretical analyses of the multi-layered, relational nature of violence, we set out a conceptualisation intended to articulate the dynamic relationship between structural, psychological and interpersonal fo…
Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Geography (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (3 works) · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression (2 works)